Bosses, workers split on state minimum wage

Workers from the Long Beach Hyatt and Hilton hotels hold a news conference at Long Beach City Hall before handing in living wage initiative signatures in this file photo from 2012. ANTONIO MENDOZA, UNITEHERE

How they voted

ASSSEMBLY

On May 30, the California Assembly passed AB10, a bill to raise the state minimum wage. The vote was 45 to 27. Here's how Orange County Assembly members voted:

Yes

Sharon Quirk-Silva (D-Fullerton)

No

Travis Allen (R-Huntington Beach)

Curt Hagman (R-Chino Hills)

Diane Harkey (R-Dana Point)

Allan Mansoor (R-Costa Mesa)

Donald P. Wagner (R-Irvine)

Abstained

Tom Daly (D-Anaheim)

SENATE

AB10 is expected to reach the Senate floor by next week. Here is how local senators voted in committee:

Senate Labor and Industrial Relations Committee passed the bill by a 3 to 1 vote, with Mark Wyland (R-Carlsbad) casting the dissenting vote.

California wages

10.3: Percentage of hourly workers – or 909,300 people – who earn minimum wage or less

1.28 million: Number of workers who earn $8 to $8.99 an hour; 47% are male and 53% are female

824,000: Number of workers who make $9 to $9.99 an hour; 49% are male and 51% are female

Sources: California Employment Development Dept.; U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

With a few more dollars, Trena Littlejohn, who makes $8.25 an hour on a night shift at an Anaheim McDonald's, could afford a new inhaler for her asthma.

With a few more dollars, her 13-year-old daughter, Kaylee, could buy a Girl Scout uniform.

With a few more dollars, Littlejohn's 23-year-old son, Oscar, who fixes computers for $9 an hour, could pay off his student loans more easily.

The Littlejohns are among more than 2 million California workers who may be closer to making ends meet: The state Legislature is voting on a bill to gradually raise the state's minimum wage to $10 an hour from $8 over the next five years.

“I can't live off McDonald's,” said Littlejohn, 43, who recently applied for food stamps after she was laid off from a second job as a cashier. “I had to borrow money this month to pay the rent.”

Pushed by anti-poverty organizations, religious groups and labor unions and opposed by business groups, the minimum wage legislation passed the Assembly, 45-27, in May. The measure, AB10, is expected to reach the full Senate and its Democratic supermajority by next week.

Gov. Jerry Brown has not indicated where he stands.

Opposition in the business community is strong. The California Chamber of Commerce has listed AB10 among its top “job-killer” bills, contending that the 25 percent increase over five years “far exceeds any reasonably expected rate of inflation.”

“This is a huge issue for small business – actually any business,” said Jerry Wheeler, president and CEO of the Huntington Beach Chamber of Commerce. Adding costs while “still trying to recover from the recession is just bad policy. Our economy is far from being out of the woods.”

The California Restaurant Association issued a sample letter for its members to send to senators, urging them to vote down the bill.

“California lost more than 16,000 restaurants between 2006 and 2012,” the letter notes. “Dramatic cost increases in general commodities, food, fuel and other operational costs have made it more difficult than ever to meet payroll.”

Joe Gatto, a Trabuco Canyon-based partner in the T-Bird Restaurant Group, which owns 63 Outback Steakhouses in California, said his franchisers would be forced to raise the pay of more than 3,000 tipped employees who earn the $8 minimum but usually take home as much as $20 an hour with tips.

“It would cut into our incredibly tight profit margins,” Gatto said. “It would take dollars away from dishwashers and line cooks who make $10 to $11 an hour and don't get tips. We would probably have to reduce hours or lay people off.”

California is among 18 states, plus the District of Columbia, with a minimum wage higher than the federal minimum of $7.25 an hour.

Ten states – but not California – boost their minimums automatically with the cost of living. California's minimum has not been raised for five years.

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